


the shape of sidon

by meliapis



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, Inspired by The Shape of Water (2017), mipha is alive, mute!reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 23:47:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30012813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meliapis/pseuds/meliapis
Summary: You work in sanitation at a government facility that keeps the strange and unusual under wraps. Apparently, a new containment has come in.You're too curious for your own good.
Relationships: Prince Sidon/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	the shape of sidon

“Heard a new containment came in today.”

Your lips purse, interest piqued as you look at your coworker (and best friend) for more details. She watches your hands flitter about with questions, smiling at your curious nature. 

“It’s no wonder you haven’t been tossed out on your ass—you ask too many questions. Good thing I’m the only one that can read ‘em.”

You smack her arm, silent in your shared amusement as the two of you move further up in line to clock-in. As you punch your cards, the two of you make for the supply closet to get your things. 

“It’s big,” she finally answers you, picking through the cleaners with knowing hands. “Why do they refuse to get rid of that store brand, shit? They know we only touch the good stuff.”

You tap her shoulder, motioning to go back to the ‘big’ topic. 

“Look, I know about as much as you do. It’s new, it’s big, and we’re likely to clean up after it just like every other weird thing that gets carted through here. You know it’s probably only gonna live through a fortnight.” 

You shrug. 

_ ‘Still interesting, though. We don’t see much of the big ones—they stay on the basement level.’ _

“Count yourself lucky you never seen that devil they keep there. What’d they name it? Gabby?”

_ ‘Ganon, I think.’ _

“Can still hear those roars in my nightmares sometimes.” She shivers, shaking her head as she pushes her cart out into the hall. You follow after her. 

_ ‘I’ll get the bathrooms on level two, today.’ _

“Lord, they don’t know how to aim down there. Bunch of animals.”

You snicker at that, wishing her a good day as you head for your stations, the smell of bleach following you everywhere you go. 

  
  


You are just finishing up down on level two when a scream pierces down the halls and into the stall you're scrubbing. It sends every hair on your body on end, the painful pitch setting your heart rate high. 

Knowing the ongoings of this government run facility, your first thought is as normal as it is dark. 

_ Which one died this time?  _

Its usually always the smaller scientists or the guards starting out who didn’t follow protocol like the seniors did. Rarely is it ever a general or the men dressed in black, that you know all too well. 

“Hey, cleaning lady!” a man barks at you as soon as you leave the bathrooms. “We got some blood for you to clean up. Make it quick, it’s almost quitting time.”

You nod, turning the cart the right way as you fight to keep your shakes internal. As you do a group of suits leaves the same room, passing you by as if you’re thin air. You only make out a portion of the conversation. 

“New science project’s got some teeth on him.”

“How many fingers he’d get?”

“Two, I think.”

“Should count himself lucky it was a few fingers and not his whole hand.”

_ This must be the new containment, then. It’s not in the basement? _

Walking into the room, you find two lab coats huddled in the corner, whispering over papers and pointing at computer screens that could very well be another language with all the scientific nonsense on it. They don’t have to tell you where the mess is, the puddle of blood is bright against the tiled floors, streaming over a bright yellow line that circles a glass pool of some kind. With the way the water grows dark, you know it goes far past the floor you stand on. 

Studying the safety line, you look out at the pool for any movement. You catch sight of a chain built to the far back of the tank, the silver glinting in the pale light of the room. It doesn’t move as you study it, but it extends into the depths where you see nothing but shadows. The top of the tank’s wall comes to your waist, which means whatever is in there could reach over it if you aren’t careful. 

Gulping, you grab your mop and get to work, scrubbing while keeping a wary eye out for whatever they have hidden in the water. 

Wiping up the remnants of a horror story, you notice something laying by the tank. Watching for activity, you get on your hands and knees and crawl across the wet floors. You get close enough to realize it’s not trash you found—it’s  _ fingers _ . 

Your stomach heaves, but you know there’s surgery that can save them if you get them on ice quick enough. Going back for a paper towel or ten, you use the tip of your broom to nudge the body parts closer, leaving more streaks of blood to clean up. 

Holding back a gag as you grab them, you rush over to the scientists, coughing for their attention. They grow squeamish at your find, but take the fingers off your hand, one of them hurrying off to deliver them while the other returns to the computer screens. 

Going back for the last of the blood, you find nothing has changed in the pool. Now that you think about it, the scientists hadn’t warned you about the containment like they usually did if one was around...

God, you felt like an idiot. This entire time you’d been tiptoeing around and the thing wasn’t even  _ in _ there. It’d probably been moved to the lower level for taking a chunk out of the workers. 

Rolling your eyes, you grab your rag and get back down on your hands and knees to scrub the red away. 

After a few minutes, you find you can’t get the color out of the tiles. It couldn’t have stained it, so you have no idea how—

Blinking, you realize it’s not blood remnants you’re seeing. 

It’s a reflection. 

Swallowing your spit, you raise your head slowly to look at the tank and find another pair of eyes staring back at you. 

Their color surprises you, vibrant and bright and gold. The red you saw was the rest of him (they had called it a  _ him _ , hadn’t they?). He’s very fish-based, head shaped like a hammerhead with a white face and chest—a  _ humanoid _ body. The fins on his arms are quite colorful, too, reminding you of the exotic macaws you’d seen at the zoo. 

He floats rather calmly ahead of you, just watching. For something that had just chomped off someone’s fingers, he doesn’t look as threatening as you would have expected, but that metal collar around his neck isn’t there for decoration. 

_ His eyes are so...human.  _

Carefully sitting back on your legs, you wave a hand in greeting. It’s dumb, but he just looked so aware, like he could give a response if he wanted to. 

It still surprises you all the same when he waves  _ back _ . 

“Hey! Don’t get so close to the tank!”

You scramble away at the lab coat’s shout, apologizing as you get to your feet with fumbling hands. 

“Don’t bother signing. I don’t know the language,” he grunts, walking over. He glanced at the tank then back towards you. “Did you see him?”

You nod, eyes flittering towards where he’d been floating. He was gone. Your heart sank, sad to see him go. He had been beautiful to look at. 

“He’s not something to play with. He nearly killed a man earlier, so stay behind the line if you can help it. You were using your mop to make up the distance earlier, so I thought you knew better,” he sighed, heading back towards the desks. 

In hindsight, it was always stupid to assume in such a dangerous facility. Assuming is what got you killed. 

Still, as you rolled your cart away, you couldn’t help but glance back at the tank one last time. 

Those gold eyes peered up at you from the lowest part of the tank, almost predatory in their gaze. 

Taking a breath, you watched as a clawed hand rose above his head crest, fingers flexing in a pattern that spelled one word. 

_ ‘Farewell.’ _

  
  


The next day, you waited for lunch, scrubbing that bathrooms from top to bottom until every last lab coat left the room. 

You had no idea what the hell you were doing. 

It was stupid.  _ You _ were stupid. Why the hell did your card work for this room? Would this notify the higher ups? 

Too late, you were already inside. 

Pushing your cart off to the side as an excuse, you grabbed your paper bag and sidle closer to the tank. The shark man is nowhere to be seen, but that chain led to the bottom like before so there was still a chance. 

Stepping over the safety line, you take a breath and squat next to the glass, knocking gently against it. 

Slowly, he emerges from below, gold eyes watching you as you cross your knees and sit your bag to the side. 

_ ‘Can you speak sign language?’ _

His eyes close as he nods once. 

_ ‘Can you speak?’ _

He nods again, raising his hands up to the glass. 

_ ‘Speaking has done me no good, however. They refuse to listen.’ _

_ ‘How do you know English?’ _

_ ‘A friend of mine taught me. His name is Link, he was mute, like you are.’ _

_ ‘I’m sorry,’  _ you said, expression wilting,  _ ‘they’ve never brought in anything that was smart enough to talk. I don’t understand why they’re testing on something that could answer their questions.’ _

_ ‘Why do you work for such cruel beings?’ _

You shrugged. 

_ ‘It’s a horrible place, but it pays well. I’m sorry you had to be here.’ _

He watches you again, looking away for a moment before swimming higher. You tense as he breaks the surface, large arms resting on the wall as he peers down at you. Drops of water fall to the floor as you ready to scramble back, should he try anything. 

“What is your name, little one?”

You gasp at his voice, surprised by the regality of it. When he tilts his head, you hurry to answer him, spelling out your name slowly. 

_ ‘What’s yours?’ _

He grins, flashing the sharp teeth you know to have taken fingers. 

“Sidon.”

  
  
  


“Are you fucking insane?!” 

Your expression pinches as your friend continues to scream at you, waving her arms about frantically as you draw random patterns on your dinner table. 

“First, you break into the room to see the damn thing and now you want to break it out?!”

_ ‘He’s sentient and smart. He’s everything we are and they’re treating him like he’s a monster—you have to listen to me.’ _

“Baby girl, I’m the only one that  _ does _ . What you’re thinking of doing is going to get you killed and I want no part in it.”

_ ‘I’m doing this with or without you,’  _ you told her, face stern as you stare at her.  _ ‘I can’t let them kill him.’ _

“I can’t let you die,” she whispered, grabbing your hands. “Is he really worth your life?”

You look at her and she just knows. 

“You just had to go and play  _ Beauty and the Beast  _ on your breaks, didn’t you?” she scoffed, tossing your hands away and she rubs at her temples. “Abandoning me in that crusty cafeteria for a fish. God,  _ fuck _ , what the hell is your plan anyway?”

You smile. 

_ ‘Sidon had an old friend named Link who just so happened to be in the phone book.’ _

  
  
  


Gunshots are everywhere, whizzing past you with millimeters to spare. Despite Sidon’s size, he is a terrible runner and so it is up to you to load him into the laundry cart and manhandle him into the van. Link is the getaway driver, all too happy to join in on your plan when you show up on his doorstep with news of Sidon. 

He tears off before you can even shut the doors all the way, the very shark you’d just broken out grabbing your shoulder to steady you as you finally slide the van door shut. The glass window shatters around you, cutting your face as you scream silently. 

You are pulled into the cart with Sidon, bumping every which way as Link drives you all to safety. 

When things have finally calmed down, you relax against Sidon’s smooth chest, wincing as a burning sensation works its way up your abdomen. 

“Oh, my love…”

You blink, holding a hand over a wet spot on your shirt. 

“Link! You must hurry! She’s been hit!”

You choke on your breath, thinking of all the threats your friend had pelted you with this morning if things went awry. You’re supposed to send her a letter when things settled down, when Sidon had gotten to safety. 

“It’ll be alright, sweet one,” Sidon promises, putting pressure on the wound as you wince. “My sister is a healer. She can help you. We just have to get to the coast.”

_ ‘Sidon…’  _ you can barely sign.  _ ‘I love you.’ _

“Oh, my pearl, I love  _ you _ ,” he swears, working to stop the steady flow of blood. “Just keep talking to me, dearest. Anything you’d like. You have to stay awake.”

But you just want to sleep. You’re so tired. 

You sign gibberish, speak of what you had for dinner last night because you had been too nervous to eat breakfast. 

The last thing you remember before blacking out is Sidon calling your name. 

  
  
  
  


It’s dark when you open your eyes and the sound of sloshing water is loud against your skull. The constant movement reveals you're on a boat and the salt on your tongue tells you you’d made it to the coast. 

“My pearl, are you awake?”

Blinking, you turn your head to find a dark form next to you, large and familiar. The glint of gold eyes in the dark has your heart singing. 

“We made it, my love. Mipha was able to heal you with seconds to spare. I couldn’t go on living if I’d lost you or, Hylia forbid, if I’d never  _ met _ you,” he breathes, cool hands holding your own tightly. 

You wiggle your fingers until he lets them free, reaching up to find his face and wipe the tears from his eyes. He kisses your hand tenderly, moving over you to treat your lips much the same. 

Everything will be alright now. 

Getting Sidon to find a light, you sign a sentence that sends his laughter rocking the boat. 

_ ‘Thank God you bit off that guy’s fingers.’ _

  
  



End file.
